If discount every-day necessities cant tempt shoppers into stores, its a clear signal that consumers feel stifled by a tough economy at home and overseas.

Thats the picture provided this morning by Wal-Marts latest quarterly report. The worlds largest retailer cut its annual profit and revenue outlook and reported second-quarter figures that missed expectations.

Wal-Mart, operating 10,800 stores across 27 countries, is seen as an economic bellwether because its a go-to spot for so many households, where they shop for groceries, home supplies and gasoline. Nonexistent wage gains and a sluggish recovery are hampering spending in America and Europe, while slowing growth in developing companies keep the emerging middle classes there from spending much, too. Listen to Wal-Mart CFO Charles Holley: The retail environment remains challenging in the U.S. and our international markets, as customers are cautious in their spending.(continued)

I keep hearing this idea expressed on this thread. Look at this from another perspective. If they always had plenty of what you wanted on every shelf, they would probably be heavy on inventory. Carrying costs on inventory affects an organization’s bottom line which translates into higher per unit prices for you, the consumer.

Would you be happier if they always had exactly what you wanted but the price was higher? No, you (or some particular female) would probably carp about how Wal Mart has raised its prices.

If you are a smart shopper Walmart is NOT the place to shop and people are starting to catch on .

You can do much better by shopping sales at most grocery stores and plan your meals according to seasonal sales rather than shopping Walmart for their everyday low prices and not have to put with Walmarts terrible service and obnoxious cashiers .
(especially true if you live in a small town since Walmart charges MUCH higher prices in their small town locations than they do in bigger cities)

really? that has not been my experience at all, to wit, Gillette foamy shave cream, $1.72, for that last 4 years. same item at the unionized stop and shop $3.39.

Ive found from scratch is cheaper in the long run. Yes the real maple syrup we use is expensive, but we use it sparingly as a treat. My homemade bread is more expensive than any store shelf bread, but mine has six simple ingredients. There is sure to be a long-term cost offset by not feeding my family food with lab created ingredient alternatives. In addition to the health aspect, cooking from scratch with the kids turns into quality time and learning time. Id love to do the couponing thing, but there are no coupons for the food that I purchase.

I actually cook a lot from scratch too and put away stuff from the garden .

If you use sugar - there are coupons for it and the cheapest time of the year to purchase it is around Thanksgiving (stores run it as a lost leader and there are always printable coupons on coupons.com that time of year) (last November I bought my years worth of sugar for around $1 a bag )

Olive oil - coupons pop up all the time on coupons.com and stores have really good sales multiple times a year . You would be surprised at how many basic staples do go on sale and have coupons for them.

I’ve been shopping at Walmart since the early 90s. Perhaps I have not been clear in what I was getting at. Back in the day Walmart re-stocked quickly. They were very well run & clean. They ran like a well oiled machine....these days not so much. I understand that it’s no smart to over-stock a store, but in my past experience with this company they were much more responsive to keeping things on the shelf. There’s no excuse to go weeks without items.

Example: I get these great Walmart all meat pizzas for under $9. They have been off the shelves going on 3 weeks in a resort area in the summer. There’s just no damn excuse for that. It’s killing their food business. Never seen this when the old man Sam was alive. This is about mismanagement. I could go on, but IMO the store has gone downhill, and I’m a fan of the business.

really? that has not been my experience at all, to wit, Gillette foamy shave cream, $1.72, for that last 4 years. same item at the unionized stop and shop $3.39.

Yes really but to do so you need to watch those sales. Shaving cream , shampoo , body wash and soaps , tooth paste and tooth brushes are quite often lost leaders at drug stores like CVS , Walgreens ,Rite Aid . These things can quite frequently be picked up for free or almost free after sale or coupon.

The secret to knocking huge percentages of your grocery bill is to watch for those sales on the items you use regularly and stock up on them when they are at their cheapest that way you don't have those same items coming off your bill every week or month.

Great place to find deals from the drug store is http://www.couponaholic.net/ The girl that runs the blog watches all three major drug store chains for sales and she puts up a link to printable coupons if they are available for printing at the time of the sale.

The information is out there if you take the few minutes to look it up before shopping.

“Walmart has become lazy. Back in the day they were almost never out of stock....these days they are missing items for weeks on end.”

I think the unstocked shelves are on purpose. We have that here. Walmart is emulating Home Depot that way, falling victim to the bean counter fallacy of inventory “velocity”, completely failing to understand the common sense notion that you can’t sell ‘em if you don’t got ‘em.

109
posted on 08/15/2013 9:47:42 PM PDT
by catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)

Freepers are harping on the fact that Walmart is no cheaper than their local grocery stores. And that’s probably true to a large extent now, but only BECAUSE Walmart forced the grocery stores to compete with Walmart’s pricing in order to stay in business.

When Walmart first moved to our community, they were WAY cheaper than the local grocery stores. As a result, the local grocery stores looked emptier than desert islands for quite a number of years until they finally wised up and lowered their prices. When they did that, people started flocking back in droves, myself included, as I find myself shopping for groceries less and less at Walmart.

But our local Walmarts still have better pricing in many departments, including the automotive department which beats the tar out of Autozone, for example. Also, our local Walmart pharmacy is WAY better in terms of customer service compared to ALL or our local Walgreen’s pharmacies, whose motto I’ve finally decided must be, “If we can fuch it up, we will.”

110
posted on 08/15/2013 9:56:04 PM PDT
by catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)

When Walmart first moved to our community, they were WAY cheaper than the local grocery stores. As a result, the local grocery stores looked emptier than desert islands for quite a number of years until they finally wised up and lowered their prices. When they did that, people started flocking back in droves, myself included, as I find myself shopping for groceries less and less at Walmart.

We now go to Aldi’s a lot. They’re limited in their selection, but what they do have is VERY inexpensive and usually high quality. In staples, they can’t be beat, such as $1.69 gallons of milk, $1.89 butter and $0.59 for a dozen eggs.

112
posted on 08/15/2013 10:02:08 PM PDT
by 2ndDivisionVet
(I aim to raise a million plus for Gov. Palin. What'll you do?.)

Walmart got really lazy with their pricing when they started offering “price matching”. Figured they didn’t have to run as many sales, and that most customers would be too lazy to ask for a price match. That philosophy is biting them. They were right that most customers didn’t bother with the price match, but those same customers apparently noticed that, overall, things were cheaper elsewhere.

In my area (practically urban, between Newark & Jersey City NJ) Wal-Mart is noticeably cheaper than grocery stores. We lost our Pathmark after Wal-Mart opened, and I expect we’ll lose our K-Mart as well. The only way shopping in Wal-Mart is bearable is to go very early; the worst of the workers and shoppers are still asleep.

“Say hi to Family Dollar and General Dollar, your neighborhood answer to WalMart that keeps a bit more gas in your tank and has as good or better prices on lots of things you used to get at WalMart.”

We recently had a Dollar General open by us; maybe I misunderstood the concept - I just don’t get it. Having lower prices by selling smaller packages doesn’t seem all that beneficial unless you’re a bachelor living on your own. Otherwise, they seem much more expensive than Wal-Mart. The Dollar General seems to operate with a staff of two or three; they won’t open a second register until ten people are lined up at the first one.

That’s the old “Farm”; I’ve since moved east to a Condo and have a similar set-up in the new basement. If a can isn’t dented, rusty or bulging (throw away), there’s no need to rotate it out. I had soups from 1999-2000 which were perfectly fine in the cool, dry, dark basement.

124
posted on 08/16/2013 4:39:12 AM PDT
by carriage_hill
(Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)

They operate as thinly as possible and squeeze every dime until it screams. Their aisles are narrow and packed with as many brands as possible, but as a regular shopper, I’m certain their prices on “most” things are right there with WalMart. In my case, WalMart is 30 minutes away and Family Dollar is 5 minutes away. In my F-150 super cab, that’s about 4 gallons of gas versus a half gallon, and an hour of travel versus 10 minutes.

So I save about 12 bucks in gas before I even start, and am home and done in an hour less time.

Family Dollar seems to have the same sized packages as does Wal-Mart for the most part. You lose on variety, of course, but the prices are similar. So, with a Sav-a-lot also nearby, we can put off a trip to one of the larger stores now. It’s more like once every other week when it used to be once a week or more.

127
posted on 08/16/2013 5:55:37 AM PDT
by xzins
(Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)

Lately though I have been price matching the big sale items if I go to Walmart.I just grab the corcular on my way out the door and check the larger sale items on the front and back pages. I don't mess with the littler items inside which Walmart is typically cheaper than anyway.

I agree, you won't get the sale prices at Walmart.

Anybody been to Costco lately? It's a horror show. Prices have, in many instances, doubled from what they were 4-5 years ago.

We are getting a WinCo. right around the corner from Walmart, Sam's and Costco. It should hit them all in the pocket pretty good.

Buying food is getting ridiculous. I was in Sweden this summer and much of the grocery prices THERE were on par or even cheaper than ours now. (ground beef, for instance was cheaper in Stockholm than here.) What's that tell you?

131
posted on 08/16/2013 8:16:44 AM PDT
by riri
(Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)

The only place that I open my wallet "all the way" anymore are stores that sell guns, ammo, hardware and lumber.

I don't go anywhere else without a good coupon. I do most of my shopping online, anyway. I dislike Wally World not for the usual leftist comtard reasons but rather because the ones near me are filthy and staffed by idiots. And the prices are not as good as they used to be.

132
posted on 08/16/2013 8:38:17 AM PDT
by jboot
(It can happen here because it IS happening here.)

“These comments about Walmart always tend to be tied to the local market and demographics. Here, the cashiers are pleasant and many of their customers know them personally. One recently died and a bunch of people went to his memorial. Regarding service, I would say though it isn’t the style of the business to have sales staff follow the customers around the stores like Nordstroms or somewhere. In fact, I won’t shop anywhere they do that. Many employees are stockers or another specialized position and won’t be able to answer questions about products nor should they try. As far as grocery prices, you can often do better with sale prices at pure grocery chains, but if what you want isn’t on sale Walmart will be about as low as anywhere. And the Walmart house brand is priced quite low.”

In our Walmart, if a competitor has a better sale price on an item, you mention it to the clerk when he/she starts to check out an item, and you get the competitors’s price.

Costco has better prices on some items like large size household items/cleaning stuff. So we make a monthly trip to an out of town Costco for that stuff and their fresh meats/fish from Alaska. We fill up on gas at about 25 cents less per gallon.

In the growing season we use our local farmers market and a farming family we have used for decades for fresh fruit and produce.

Our Walmart is about one mile away and other super markets are several miles away with usually some heavy traffic. So Walmart is like a 7-11 for us with better prices. We use their 20 item or less checkout lines. They were understaffed for a while, and I took some pictures of the long lines at the registers and emailed them to their home office. In about a week, new checkers were hired, and there is usually a minimal wait.

We park on a side parking lot, and spread the word to friends. Now, we joke that it looks likes a Lexus, Merc, BMer and other premium car parking lot with $30-40 K suvs and pick ups.

Anti Walmart/Thugs complain about surly clerks at Walmart, the most surly checkers here are union thugs at the other markets. Whom, we often see shopping at Walmart, because they can’t afford the price difference between their stores and the lower prices at Walmart.

133
posted on 08/16/2013 10:16:18 AM PDT
by Grampa Dave
( Obozo and his thugs in his outhouse lie 24/7/365. They are unable to tell the truth.)

Walmart just doesn’t work for my large family anymore. I still go there probably once a week but I seldom purchase more than $50 anymore. I’ve switched to Costco and I just end up with more for my money. I do like Wholefoods but for now I just can’t afford the premium price but plan to resume shopping there beginning of next year but only for those specialty items that I like. If I’m going to shop based on the overall experience Target wins hands down.

134
posted on 08/16/2013 10:31:09 AM PDT
by Maelstorm
(If all are treated as suspects it will not be long before we all are treated as prisoners.)

“I am eternally grateful for the $4 prescription drugs at Walmart. In fact, when we get dumped from our insurance plan on Jan 1 because it doesnt meet Obamacare requirements I will be even more grateful.”

That is great for a short term/time RX.

If the RX is for a long time, Walmart has a 90 day supply of the top 100 generics for $10. We have an excellent RX plan for expensive on patent RX items. However, they charge $30 for a most generic 90 day supply. So I save $20 every quarter when I can get that rx filled at Walmart.

Often on a short term rx not in Walmart’s 90 day program, via our Rx Plan, we get an rx for a few bucks. That day versus sending the rx in and getting it mailed back often at a higher cost.

135
posted on 08/16/2013 10:34:19 AM PDT
by Grampa Dave
( Obozo and his thugs in his outhouse lie 24/7/365. They are unable to tell the truth.)

“These comments about Walmart always tend to be tied to the local market and demographics. Here, the cashiers are pleasant and many of their customers know them personally.”

EXACTLY....
I’ll drive 20 miles to a smaller town Walmart where things are actually in stock, the store is clean, my car isn’t in danger in the parking lot, and the employees are pleasant, thus avoiding the noise and “Demographic” of the city.

I think good store managers have as much to do with the experience, as does the demo.

Pricing isn’t much different than Meier or Kroger, although Meier still has in-house butchers, making the meat quality the best in this area.

136
posted on 08/16/2013 10:37:11 AM PDT
by tcrlaf
(Well, it is what the Sheeple voted for....)

The difference between the face they put on this and the reality is very creepy (and probably played a big role in people just tuning them out). The closed businesses, “for sale” signs all over, the old clunkers filling the roads - they tell the truth.

I understand what you’re saying, but in my area Wal-Mart is definitely cheaper. Dollar General is 5 minutes away, Wal-Mart is 10; I’ll go to Dollar General if I only need ONE thing. Otherwise, they aren’t competitive; in fact, they aren’t even competitive with Shop-Rite (7 minutes away). I see people describing the pricing Wal-Mart uses in different areas (depending on the competition), and that might explain the difference in our experiences.

I bought a pair of shorts at Dollar General in which the pockets quickly wore out; the same may have happened if I bought them at Wal-Mart, but I would have paid several dollars less for the lesson.

I no longer live near maple trees and a good friend that used to make his own maple syrup. I do hear that maple syrup can be mailed. Can I interest you in a trade for an authentic southwest tumble weed. A genuine tumble weed can be quite the conversation piece in the northeast!

139
posted on 08/16/2013 3:50:46 PM PDT
by gunsequalfreedom
(Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)

Don’t expect ANY customer service at a Savannah, GA Wal-Mart. They act like they are doing you a favor just to sneer at you as they slowly ring up your purchases. I usually go to self-checkout except when I’m feeling feisty and want one of those receipts where you rate the cashier. I ALWAYS fill those out.

Dont expect ANY customer service at a Savannah, GA Wal-Mart. They act like they are doing you a favor just to sneer at you as they slowly ring up your purchases. I usually go to self-checkout except when Im feeling feisty and want one of those receipts where you rate the cashier. I ALWAYS fill those out.

My nearest Walmart is exactly like this. But what really ticks me off most about them is how slack they are about bagging things . Multiple times they have left pricy items out of my bags (somehow they just sort of were mysteriously left out - fell on the floor etc ) and I notice they are not in my bags and have to go back only to be told yes we found such and such and we put it back on the shelf .

My favorite couponing site is www.weusecoupons.com Ive been getting a ton of free pens this week. :)

I <3 Walgreens *giggles* I've been picking up those pens and the Caress soaps for .04 each (soaps are ringing up 1.29 if you buy two at a time and use 1.25/1 07/28/2013 RP- limit two like coupons-sale ends 8/31 on the soaps )

Anybody been to Costco lately? It's a horror show. Prices have, in many instances, doubled from what they were 4-5 years ago.

Yep. We rarely go there anymore. Food prices there have really gotten ridiculous. BJ's consistently beats them on pricing.

There are a lot of Walmart haters out there, but I will say the King of Prussia Walmart (just outside Philadelphia) is a nice store. Friendly employees, clean, well stocked. I have no complaints. The parking lot is predominantly upscale cars - lots of newer minivans and SUV's. No shortage of Mercedes and Lexus vehicles. Walmart haters want to believe people are boycotting Walmart, but the truth is the economy is in the tank and that's what's bringing Walmart sales down.

If sales are down at Walmart, I suspect it has more to do with how people are shopping in these tough times. I have noticed that people's carts there are very targeted (as is our own). For instance, we will often buy a monthly supply of yogurt when we go there. It's not unusual to look over and see someone has a cart full of cereal or coffee. And then you head over to the Wegman's across the street and you see much the same thing (more meat and produce sold there though).

The other side of the new basement has 18 shelves, with ammo, more supplies, computer stuff. The center is now a workbench area for my firearms. BTW, this is the old Farm House’s set-up. My new condo layout is very different with multiple aisles.

149
posted on 08/17/2013 5:50:53 AM PDT
by carriage_hill
(Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)

If sales are down at Walmart, I suspect it has more to do with how people are shopping in these tough times. I have noticed that people's carts there are very targeted (as is our own)

No doubt.

I see a lot of nay sayers saying this little loss is but a blip. I can make a fairly educated guess that the truth loss is probably higher and it took a lot of number crunching to get the loss to this acceptable level.

Much stuff, I just don't buy anymore. When they've shrunken the Oreos package for the third time and the price is 25 cents higher, I just skip it. I look for the cheaper alternative or I will skip that type of product all together if I don't need it. Same with many products. Just out of principle, I won't buy it.

150
posted on 08/17/2013 8:04:28 AM PDT
by riri
(Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)

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